The High Court is set to announce today its verdict on the death reference of 19 convicts and appeals of 19 others sentenced to life imprisonment in the August 21, 2004, grenade attack case.
The attack targeted an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka in which 24 people were killed and scores of others injured, narrowly missed then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina, though she sustained hearing damage.
Two cases 鈥� one for murder and another under the Explosive Substances Act 鈥� were filed on August 22, 2004.
A bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain completed the hearing on November 21 and said that the verdict would be delivered any day.
On the final day of the five-day proceedings, senior defence lawyer SM Shajahan sought the acquittal of the 19 death-row convicts,聽 including former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu, and a former National Security Intelligence director general Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury.
Shajahan also argued for the acquittal of 19 other convicts, including acting BNP chairman Tarique Rahman, who was tried in his absence.
He contended that the second charge sheet, submitted in July 2011 under the Awami League government, lacked legal validity.
This supplementary charge sheet implicated 30 new individuals, including Tarique Rahman, Babar, and Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid.
Mujahid was executed for 1971 war crimes, on November 21, 2015, before the trial court delivered verdict in the case in 2018.
Shajahan questioned the legitimacy of a second confessional statement attributed to Mufti Abdul Hannan, the executed leader of Harkat-ul-Jihad, arguing that multiple confessions in the same case are legally inadmissible.
Hannan was initially named in the 2008 charge sheet and was executed in 2017 for a separate grenade attack on former British envoy Anwar Choudhury.
Deputy attorney general Md Jashim Sarker, however, strongly defended the trial court verdict, arguing for its full endorsement.
In the five-day hearing, Jashim presented key findings of the case to underscore the gravity of the attack and the strength of the evidence.
The death reference and appeals had initially been heard by the High Court bench of Justice Shahidul Karim and Justice Md Akhtaruzzaman.
That bench reviewed depositions of 235 witnesses in 18 months and adjourned the hearing on August 18, 2024, citing the need for the state law officers鈥� preparation.
The chief justice later reassigned the case to the bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain, where the fresh hearing began on October 31.
On October 10, 2018, the Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal 1 sentenced 19 individuals to death, 19 people, including Tarique, to imprisonment for life term and 11 others to imprisonment for varying terms.
Tarique, the eldest son of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, was tried in his absence, as he has been residing in London since 2008.
The twelve fugitive convicts, including Tarique, did not appeal against the trial court verdict.
Former inspectors general of police Ashraful Huda, Shahudul Haque, and Khoda Baksh Chowdhury, former assistant superintendents of the Criminal Investigation Department Munshi Atiqur Rahman and Abdur Rashid, and CID special superintendent Ruhul Amin were among 11 police officers convicted in the cases on the charge of diverting the course of the investigation.
The convicted police officers are now on bail.
Major death penalty recipients are former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu, his brother Maulana Tajuddin (fugitive), intelligence officials former major general Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury and former brigadier general Abdur Rahim, who died later.
The rest of the condemned convicts are extremist suspects maulana Sheikh Abdus Salam, Yusuf Butt alias Majid Butt, Abdul Malek alias Golam Mohammad, Maulana Shawkat Osman, Mohibullah alias Mofizur Rahman alias Ovi, Maulana Abu Sayeed alias Dr Abu Zafar, Abul Kalam Azad alias Bulbul, Jahangir Alam, Maulana Abu Taher, and Hossain Ahammed Tamim, Mufti Moinuddin Sheikh alias Abu Zandal alias Masum Billah, Rafikul Islam alias Rashed alias Sabuj and Mohammad Ujjal alias Ratan, and transport owner Md Hanif.
Of the convicts, Tajuddin and Hanif were fugitives.
Besides Tarique Rahman, the political figures who were sentenced to life imprisonment are former prime minister Khaleda Zia鈥檚 then political adviser Haris Chowdhury, who died later, and former BNP lawmaker Qazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad.
Jahangir Alam Alias Badar, Mohammad Iqbal, Mohibul Muttakin, Ratul Ahmed Basu, Mufti Shafikur Rahman, Maulana Liton Alias Zobir alias Delwar, Mufti Abdul Hai, Anisul Mursalin, Md Khalilur Rahman, Maulana Abu Bakar alias Selim Howlader sentenced to life imprisonment remain fugitives.
Of the 19 life term recipients Maulana Abdur Rouf, Ariful Islam Arif, Shahadatullah Jewel, Maulana Sabbir Ahmed alias Abdul Hannan Sabbir, Asif Hasan alias Sujan alias Abdul Razzak, and Maulana Yahya are in custody.
In 2005, Joj Mia, a petty poster and cassette seller from Gulistan, became an unlikely suspect in grenade attack. Having returned his village home at Senbagh in Noakhali, after falling ill, Joj Mia was abruptly arrested by police on June 10, 2005.
He was reportedly tortured into providing a false confession implicating himself in the deadly attack.
The arrest and coerced confession became emblematic of the manipulation surrounding the case during the BNP-led Four Party Alliance government鈥檚 tenure.
The investigation, hastily concluded by the ruling alliance, claimed the attack was orchestrated by Awami League members, a narrative that diverted attention from the actual perpetrators.
Under the military-backed caretaker government in 2007, the case was reopened, and the CID re-investigated the incident.
Joj Mia was subsequently dropped from the case, and in June 2008, the CID pressed charges against 22 individuals, including former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu and Mufti Abdul Hannan.
After the Awami League assumed power in December 2008, the investigation was expanded further, leading to two charge sheets implicating 49 individuals.
The trial began shortly thereafter, uncovering the extent of the initial cover-up.
